w the difference
between truth and falsehood. These detestable qualities, which I
constantly hear attributed to them as innate and inherent in their race,
appear to me the direct result of their condition. The individual
exceptions among them are, I think, quite as many as would be found under
similar circumstances, among the same number of white people.

In considering the whole condition of the people on this plantation, it
appears to me that the principal hardships fall to the lot of the women;
that is, the principal physical hardships. The very young members of the
community are of course idle and neglected; the very very old, idle and
neglected too; the middle-aged men do not appear to me over-worked, and
lead a mere animal existence, in itself not peculiarly cruel or
distressing, but involving a constant element of fear and uncertainty, and
the trifling evils of unrequited labour, ignorance the most profound, (to
which they are condemned by law); and the unutterable injustice which
precludes them from all the merits and all the benefits of voluntary
exertion, and the progress that results from it. If they are absolutely
unconscious of these evils, then they are not very ill-off brutes, always
barring the chance of being given or sold away from their mates or their
young--processes which even brutes do not always relish. I am very much
struck with the vein of melancholy, which assumes almost a poetical tone
in some of the things they say. Did I tell you of that poor old decrepid
creature Dorcas, who came to beg some sugar of me the other day? saying as
she took up my watch from the table and looked at it, 'Ah? I need not look
at this, I have almost done with time!' Was not that striking from such a
poor old ignorant crone?

* * * * *

Dear E----. This is the fourth day that I have had a 'gang' of lads
working in the woods for me after their task hours, for pay; you cannot
think how zealous and energetic they are; I daresay the novelty of the
process pleases them almost as much as the money they earn. I must say
they quite deserve their small wages.

Last night I received a present from Mrs. F---- of a drum fish, which
animal I had never beheld before, and which seemed to me first cousin to
the great Leviathan. It is to be eaten, and is certainly the biggest fish
food I ever saw; however, everything is in proportion, and the prawns that
came with it are upon a similarly extensive